May 4, 2021
Predatory bacteria — bacteria that eat other bacteria — use approaches remarkably similar to much larger organisms as they target their prey. In the case of
Vampirovibrio, the bacterium attaches to the outside of a prey cell and feeds on its interior cytosol — much as a vampire bat sucks blood from mammals it feeds on. For bacteria in the genus
Lysobacter, several bacterial cells act as a group to hunt their prey, just as a wolf pack might target an elk. Image courtesy of Northern Arizona University. (Download Image)
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Predatory bacteria bite their own
Anne M Stark, stark8 [at] llnl.gov, 925-422-9799